How To Motivate Yourself To Do Laundry: 8 Hacks for Adults
Are you overwhelmed by laundry, yet lack the motivation to even fold one pair of socks? Here’s 8 adulting hacks to help you conquer your laundry once and for all.
I have to admit, I hate doing the laundry and dishes with a passion. They’re truly the two chores that never end as an adult.
But we all know how important they are to do in order to maintain our sanity, and of course, in regards to laundry, have clean clothes for work and school. Because who wants to wear smelly clothes?!
So if you’re ready to conquer your laundry and finally gain the motivation to tackle that pile of laundry sitting in a hamper in your bedroom, then I have just the tips and tricks for you.
In today’s blog post, I am sharing 8 strategies you can use to motivate yourself to do laundry.
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8 tips to help motivate you to tackle that mountain of laundry
At the end of the day, you just gotta kick your butt into gear and do your laundry. No ifs ands or buts, like your mom would say.
But luckily, laundry day doesn’t have to feel like torture.
These 8 motivational hacks for laundry day will help you catch up with your laundry and make you fall in love with doing the laundry.
1. Set a designated day and time for laundry
If you’re a planner, then the best way to make sure you get laundry done is to simply schedule it into your calendar.
Whether you set a reminder on your phone or pencil in your calendar to do laundry every Sunday morning or every Wednesday after work, making laundry a regularly occurring event in your weekly schedule will help you be automatically motivated.
Why? Because if you don’t do laundry on your set day at your set time, you’ll feel pretty off. You’ll feel like something is missing and you may actually feel more stressed.
But by planning and following through with a laundry day routine, you’ll be able to consistently tackle laundry without the fuss and a lot less stress.
2. Pair laundry time with something fun
One of the best hacks for doing anything you dislike is pairing it with something fun!
You can honestly apply this hack to anything in your life, but in regards to laundry–try doing laundry while watching your favorite TV show on Netflix or listening to a podcast.
I would highly recommend choosing a TV show, movie, or podcast you have already seen or listened to.
That way you can sort, fold, and put away the laundry without having to miss out on any new information or major plot twist.
3. Have a friend or significant other help you
If you seriously cannot stand to do laundry by yourself, try having your roommate, best friend, or significant other help you do laundry.
Just be sure to choose someone you don’t mind seeing your undergarments (or you can put those away first by yourself).
I always find laundry more tolerable when my boyfriend helps me.
He usually will work on one task, like folding towels, and I’ll work on hanging clothes up on hangers.
By having someone help you do your laundry, you basically reduce the chore in half and you have someone there to talk to.
See what kind of deep or crazy conversations you can have just by doing laundry!
4. Make it a competition
With a friend or by yourself, you can make laundry a competition.
Which if you’re competitive in nature… might be exactly what you need to motivate yourself to do laundry.
You can compete to see:
- Who can fold towels the quickest
- Who can find and gather the most pairs of socks
- Who can hang up the most clothes in two-minutes
- Etc.
And if you’re by yourself, check out tip #5 down below.
5. Set a timer for 10 minutes
Whether you’re trying to compete against yourself or just trying to gain the tiniest bit of motivation to conquer your pile of laundry, a simple hack is to set a timer for 10 minutes and see how much laundry you can get done in that amount of time.
You will be shocked with just how much of that pile of laundry you can tackle in 10-minutes. It may just be the most productive 10-minutes of your life!
Why does this work? Because it uses the pomodoro technique, which is a time management technique that emphasizes focus on a single task for a set time.
It’s one of the best productivity and motivational hacks ever and if you haven’t tried it out yet, you’re seriously missing out.
6. Buy a new hamper and hangers
Just like how people buy new workout outfits and gear to motivate themselves to work out, you can try buying yourself new hampers and hangers to inspire yourself to do laundry.
When I was younger, a huge reason why I hated doing laundry was because of the hangers we had at my house. They were just the basic plastic and metal ones, but it was so frustrating always having to rehang clothes that had fallen off.
But when I got older, my mom bought me velvet hangers, and they’ve seriously changed the laundry game for me!
No more clothes half off the hangers or completely littering the floor of my closet.
I’d also recommend getting plastic laundry baskets over cloth laundry baskets.
They’re easier to clean if you have gunk from your clothes that rub off on the hamper and they’re more pet friendly too if your pet decides to use it as a place to scent mark…
7. Make laundry night wine night
This second to last laundry motivational tip is a pretty fun one, but I’m not sure how practical it would be on a weekly basis.
But if one night you’re really feeling overwhelmed by laundry, but just can’t fathom to do it–pour yourself a glass of wine and go to town on your laundry basket.
But again, I don’t recommend doing this laundry tip often. It’s probably not the best idea long-term, but it can certainly be a way to spice up laundry day once in awhile.
8. Focus on the easy laundry wins
Let me be completely honest with you–I don’t properly fold all of my laundry.
Especially things like socks, underwear, and bras… all of that gets stuffed into their respective drawers. But those are what I call my “easy laundry wins.”
Meaning, if there’s just one part of laundry I can tackle, it’s those easy wins.
I simply just grab those items from the hamper, put them in piles, and then shove them into my three drawers.
And those easy wins usually are enough to motivate myself to put away the entire laundry basket.
So are there any “easy laundry wins” you can find in your laundry routine?
Maybe instead of folding up your t-shirts, you simply roll them. Or instead of pairing each sock with it’s mate, you just let all your socks mingle together in the drawer together randomly. Whatever works for you!
Concluding thoughts on doing laundry when you have no motivation
Laundry is one of those chores that you’ll probably always have a love/hate relationship with.
You love laundry when it’s done, but you hate when there’s another pile of dirty laundry needing to be washed, sorted, folded, and put away.
I hope in today’s blog post, you were able to takeaway some actionable laundry motivational hacks to help you keep on top of your laundry time over time. Good luck!
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